Synopsis

A series relating the intertwined stories about the "first loves" of several middle-schoolers and high-schoolers. Each episode tends to focus on a different character, however the developments established during previous episodes continue to play smaller roles in those following. As the series progresses, an array of unusual and unexpected love webs begin to blossom.

Most, if not all male viewers tend to agree with that statement. The various male characters in Hatsukoi Limited (literally means first love limited) all experienced the same problem. But before you get the wrong idea, it should mentioned that this anime is directed from the female perspective most of the time. Hatsukoi Limited explores the early love life of a group of teenage girls and how they cope with boys that they like (or don’t like). While 12 episodes are hardly enough to cover
any in depth relationship for over half a dozen girls, the story remains a highly enjoyable one. Simply put, Hatsukoi Limited is as close to an idealized slice of life / romance comedy one could find in the market now a day.

Complex love web is one of the main elements in the story. However, viewers will have no trouble adapting to the environment as everything build on one another slowly one step at a time. In fact, the overall plot to the story tags along quite well with each major character’s development. One could even say the characters are a natural complement to the story or vice versa (this may be a natural thing to say, but in reality not a lot of shows can even do this properly).

A well structured story must also have a logical order for presenting its characters and Hatsukoi Limited excel in this department as well, as previously mentioned. What most people worry about is the sudden rush of information in the early episodes (like just dumping all you need to know about all the characters in episode 1), but thankfully that is not the case for Hatsukoi Limited. In hindsight, starting the story with Ayumi was an obvious choice for the author although her character as a whole may not have been the easiest to accept by most audiences.

Viewers will enjoy watching most of the characters grow and develop themselves along the way. Most have gotten more mature and act more reasonably, but there are some exceptions. Whether the lack of character development for these characters are attributed to the length of the series or the story was meant to be that way, is up to viewers to decide. However, it should be pointed out that all the characters have a sense of realism in them, nothing from their characteristics seem fictitious or too fantasy-like. Through the eyes of these 14 to 16 years old, one might even see a resemblance of your own younger self.

Perhaps the most painful part of Hatsukoi Limited with regards to its characters is that, like most shounen shows out there, it has really wimpy, stupid, and annoying guys (to make matter worse, most of them look quite ugly too). On the other hand, the females characters are often really smart, kawaii, and gorgeous looking babes (yes Misaki, that means you)!

Quite frankly, it was the character animation that first caught my attention to this wonderful romance comedy as the storyline sounded rather generic to me at first. As to be expect from J.C. Staff, they always deliver high quality animation (and consistent too). The backgrounds are often lacking in detail, but that help put the characters in focus and viewers will spend 90% of the time looking at the characters anyway, thus there isn’t much to complain about. It was also interesting to see that the characters in the anime seem to be an exact carbon copy of their original manga self. Believe it or not, it is not easy to find an anime adaptation that follows the manga as closely as Hatsukoi Limited, both in the looks of the characters and the story itself.

Finally, music is THE area that surpirsed me the most throughout the show. First off, both OP and ED are just splendid. The additional BGM and soundtracks in between just amplifies whatever tiny emotion I had in my mind, making this series a bit more successful than it should have been in my eyes. I hope you will find Hatsukoi Limited as enjoyable as it did for me and it is definitely a series in which I plan to have a blu-ray collection of in the future.

Hatsukoi limited follows the lives of a group of teenagers from a few schools that are connected in some way or another. It covers the early part of their love lives and deals solely with the issue of love. So for those who enjoy school romance you will probably enjoy this series.

The story i gave a 10 because it was clique but at the same time original at some points. While it's about a typical school romance it involves many characters that shape the story differently from a usual school romance. We get to see all sorts of love which is why i really enjoyed
the series. From unrequitted to mutual to family. All are touched upon. The story can be said to be quite light hearted as it involves a lot of humour, but it is not too slapstick and it does have its serious moments which make the story entetaining. I think what i enjoyed most was the realism in the story in that it's not always a happy ending but it still gives us the feeling that it is in its own way because of the way the characters feel or get out of the experiences. I also found it interesting how the story intertwines the characters such that there is always some relation to another character and we go like "what a development! so complex!".

The art was appropriate for the series. The characters were drawn out vividly and colourful which suits the light heartednes of the story. The humour came out quite nicely as well as it's not like those blank face drawings you get in the more humourous animes and the scenery is done up quite nicely as well so 9 for art.

The sound i gave an 8 because in relation to other animes i have seen it cannot match up to the wide selection that they give. But nonetheless, there were several endings used in different episodes that helped to bring out the mood at the end of the episode. Personally i felt the ending song was a more appropriate for this anime than the starting. So all in all an 8, because i think that it has potential for more.

The characters were fantastic. I would give this anime a high9 which rounds off to 10. Considering the length of the anime, i think that the characters were given decent coverage and there is depth to most of the main characters. the only one who has little depth would be enomoto's sister whose love life was not covered. The story is really character-driven in that we get to see the story from many different angles depending on whose love life it is focussed on in each episode. Of course the main characters is still Ayumi but we get to see different points of view on love based on the different characters. This is what makes the story so colourful. Which is why i have to give both story and characters 10 as they go hand in hand. The characters have very real and different personalities which are explored in this story and help to make it intersting. I'd say that almost all the characters are main characters because they get an equal coverage and hence it adds to the realism as it's not some anime where the main character always wins in the end.

Overall, i think the anime was great in balancing the comedy and romance in the story. It can be said to be somewhat of a romantic comedy though there is no one focus. The episode length was actually quite adequate for this anime because of its ending which i will not spoil. For an anime of 12 episode, i must commend it for being one of the best i have seen in terms of character development and plot development. You will surely enjoy this series unless you are into more psychological or drama genres.

Well that’s the pop up question in this anime. It’s about love affairs that can be ended to love struck.

~Story~ [8]

The stories between each of the characters are a bit specific, somewhat predictable and have the same issue. The issues bring a funny and interesting twist. We can call it a “love triangle or a misunderstanding love”.

It's about middle-schoolers and high schoolers searching for their ideal prince and princess to be able to form their first love, and thinking optimistically to live a happy ever after but in the end they fall into some kind of other twist. Attitudes, appearances,
and traits are the basis on picking their ideal one’s that make a well-formed twist for them to encounter. But the question is, does the searching and making love improves on each episode, well there’s a little improvement on fulfilling it and if there’s a little improvement maybe we will come up on thinking that there will be minor details about it, and the answer of it “yes there is”, and on the other hand there’s always been a shock when cupid caught their hearts that became somewhat predictable and it’s always been alike on every character.

Overall it has a little improvement but many twist to make fun around them, but though the story is not finished and already on the halfway probably on its following episodes it will get serious.

~Art & Animation~ [7]

The art is… well a bit ok for me, for the main characters to have a face that resembles a moon head figure. The art on the background is a bit faint and the characters are somewhat faded. The animation is a bit daring for an ecchi; panties, boobs and naughty scenes are shown.

~Sound~ [6.8]

The OP and ED theme songs are a bit catchy and the voices of each character are an okay for me, nothing unusual to be thrilled on.

~Characters~ [8]

A group of middle-schoolers and some high schoolers that has distinct standard on picking their ideal partner. All of the characters have different characteristics and different affairs to encounter. Well this is not a shock that this idea will come up to the story, but come on can be this story be too simple, maybe not, but they come up on improvising character traits, attitudes and daring poses that will help to hold up viewers on watching, for me it rather looks like a little fun to watch yet it’s kind of a bit boring and for the whole thing this is all thanks for relying on naughty and romance display.

~Enjoyment~ [7]

Enjoyed some funny and daring scenes on watching, but it does not always gives such fun, and also by the help of the twist the story looks like a bit interesting so continuing it will not much harm yet it stills on the halfway of all its episodes, therefore, hopefully there will be more exciting scene to watch on its following episodes.

~Overall~ {8 + 7 + 6.8 + 8 + 7 = 36.8 / 5} [7.36 or 7.4]

A kind of unusual love affair between characters, it is somewhat unique because of the unusual attitudes of characters, it’s naughty and comedy scenes somewhat helps just to be on but thinking about it, it’s not attractive enough. Maybe the great factor here is the twist behind it. Well, it’s better to give it a try if you have much spare time to give on such anime.

Hatsukoi Limited. A hidden gem amongst all of the shows in its genre. This is one of those shows that I feel doesn't get as much recognition as it deserves.

Hatsukoi Limited, as you may be able to guess from its name, is a story about love. It's not just about love though, it's about many qualms an adolescent will face as they climb up the ladder to adulthood, their first love being one of the steps on the ladder. For many, we look to our first love fondly--those sweet elementary and junior high days spent with who we thought was "the one", and for
others, we look at our first loves and remember the pain of rejection and heartbreak. Hatsukoi Limited capitalizes on each of these joys and flaws. A story about how ten teenager's lives change as love meddles in their affairs for the very first time. A story about their hearts as they undulate like the tides; a timeless story about maturity and growth.

There are many types of love in this world: filial, platonic, unconditional, and romantic (which splits into mutual and unrequited). Hatsukoi Limited touches on all these types of love. No words can truly do the complex feelings portrayed in this anime justice; the flood of raw emotions that is unleashed simply cannot be adequately expressed. The cast is so diverse, so dynamically human that it is hard not to like. The message the show gives its viewers ring with a sharp, down to earth tone that is hopeful yet poignant. The cast of this series is one of the most believable set of characters I've ever seen. A beautifully told simple love story, combined with realistic characters makes for the perfect love story. Where some may argue the ending didn't do a show of this caliber justice, I applaud the producers and writers for such an ending, for I feel the exact opposite.

Hatsukoi Limited is a show that will make you laugh, cry, and reflect on your past and current loves through the struggles that these characters face. I can't think of many romance shows that do this.

If that doesn't warrant you to watch this show, I don't know what will.